Yo, Trumpers, You Picked the Wrong Target for Your Ire

There is a large stream of anti-immigrant sentiment in the supporters of current GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. They are not alone. Immigration issues fueled a great deal of the Brexit vote and they form a core of the central issues for the far right-wing parties springing up all over Europe.

This is “normal” in the sense of when economic times are tough, there is a tendency to lash out at the “cause” of one’s misery. It is also “normal” for the subjects of our lashes to tend to be those we are prejudiced against.

What is unfortunate is that the target of our ire is poorly selected. It is not immigrants who are the cause of our current economic woes. Immigrant communities have lower crime rates that do established communities. Immigrants are usually more zealous regarding American values than home grown citizens, but are they really the reason why you don’t have a job? Have they swooped in and taken up all of the banking jobs? How about real estate? Computer technicians? Auto mechanics? Plumbers? Tool and die workers? An interesting case occurs regarding doctors. It seems that most of the medical professionals I see are either foreign born or appear to be first or second gen Americans. But I don’t see a lot of doctors complaining about how immigrants have stolen their jobs.

One can also make a strong argument that immigrants are an injection of vitality into our culture. I can remember a time when the gourmet dining opportunities in the Midwest involved chicken-fried steak. Now one can easily find Thai food, sushi, Ethiopian restaurants, etc. and that is just our food culture.

No, immigrants should not be the target of our ire.

The real target are the oligarchs, those in the class of people we refer to as being “rich,” the 1%. It is they as movers and shakers in business who have ruthlessly exported good jobs out of the country to be replaced by McJobs, low paying service jobs. They are the ones campaigning for lower business taxes when business taxes, the actual ones, not the listed maximums, are the lowest they have been since they were instituted, leaving ordinary people to pick up the slack. These are the people trying to starve the government of receipts so it will stop “redistributing” their wealth to the undeserving poor (and minorities) in obvious wastes of money like Social Security and Medicare. These are the people who have redistributed the people’s wealth into their pockets but don’t want that flow reversed or even diminished. These are the people for whom no amount of money is “enough” and who will do almost anything to get “more.” These are the ones who label poor people as being “lazy,” who think an education is the cure for all economic ills (it is not), and who think government should be limited to waging wars (profitable ones anyway) and enforcing contracts.

The real target of our ire should be the plutocrats, who with their obscene amounts of wealth have bought the courts, the legislature, and the political parties.

Anyone actually living in a sanctuary city knows that the root problem is overwhelming masses of illegal immigrants. Your third paragraph is mostly wrong. In these cities, illegals that break the law, go free, while citizens pay for their crimes with fines or jail/prison time. In Miami, FL, our non-Spanish speaking kids cannot get jobs. Only Spanish-speakers get hired. Illegals work in banking, medical offices, real estate, schools, and all kinds of businesses. They work as computer technicians, auto mechanics, plumbers, tool and die workers. Non-Spanish speakers can barely eke out a living even though they were born and raised within the city. You can’t do business in English in these cities (ignoring the tourist area of Miami Beach). The middle class in these cities don’t qualify for health care discounts, free college or other benefits, while the illegals do. Illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities are thriving on the backs of the middle class. The middle class simply can’t afford it anymore.

Everything is more expensive in our cities (in fact, the whole state) because of the overwhelming number of illegal immigrants. One example: illegals drive without car insurance, while citizens are required to pay for car insurance. We have to cover their cost since they don’t pay. So, Florida has about the highest car insurance rates in the US. Same scenario with health insurance. They get free coverage, we don’t. They live in large houses, while we struggle to pay rent in tiny apartments. Legal citizens/residents struggle to pay for everything while the illegals are thriving.

The target of our ire isn’t simply, as you say, immigrants. It’s the overwhelming numbers of illegal immigrants which nobody seems to be doing anything to slow down. We are overpopulated with illegals, and (at least in Miami, Florida) this administration (President Obama) continues to relocate them in disproportionately high numbers to South Florida (as compared to other parts of the US). It’s literally making us poorer.

To us, Trump’s message is refreshing. If Trump actually follows through, we (middle class families) can hope for some release from our financial burdens. That’s why Trump won so overwhelmingly in the Florida primaries (even beating Florida’s own Senator Rubio).

The solution has been available for many years: proof of legal status is required to be hired and penalties for employers who deliberately break that law. When both Dems and Reubs have been in power, this solution has failed to materialize. And, in politics one should always follow the money, so what do you think is the benefit of having illegals working the the U.S.? The fact that they depress wages for the rest of us? That they are a political football that affects elections from which the elected can get rich while in office? what?